In this age of Information Technology, the biggest threat faced by the Internet users is security of the data. The Heartbleed bug is one such threat that is creating a lot of challenges for the virtual world visitors. This bug works by creating a flaw in encryption that is responsible for ruining a lot of famous websites. Many websites that are quite popular as well as reputed websites like Airbnb, Yahoo, OKCupid and NASA have been victimized with this cyber threat. These websites and its encrypted communication become operational at SS Encryption which gets exposed in a destructive way to this threat’s malicious ways. Millions of users use Facebook and Gmail every day and these websites have also not been able to escape the wrath of this Heartbleed bug. The chances of previous passwords and records at immense risk are quite high.
There are several instances when we come to know about a wide variety of internet and viruses threats and sometimes we view these threats as being overrated which is not always the case. As a matter of fact, such instances are consistently growing in numbers. With time, the number of cases related to cyber crimes, data theft, identity theft and privacy violation are increasing at an exponential rate. This menace has been haranguing the life of internet users to a considerable extent.
In the modern world of the internet, open SSL has becomes a vital part where almost 2/3 rd global websites uses this protocol. SSL or Security Sockets Layer is a cryptographic protocol meant for security which has been designed keeping in mind offering security communication to the internet users. When transactions are carried out by the users or passwords are entered besides any personal information on the sites, they are in fact sharing records that are confidential with other sites. For the prevention of tampering and data securing, data of the user is encrypted by the websites using SSL Encryption that flows amidst these websites. Privacy and data confidentiality is enabled this way. The chances of vital information reaching in the hands of third parties reduced to a minimum.
After taking all precautions, sometimes, it comes to light that these SSL encryptions are not completely reliable and safe. There are flaws in this system too. This glaring truth becomes a challenge for the internet users as it is unthinkable for them to find security protocol harbouring some of the greatest flaws. Hackers take advantage of this weakness. Another vulnerability of the internet, that is, the Heartbleed Bug came into existence in the end of the year 2011. Though, the existence of this bug remained hidden from the Information Technology experts for a while, it started coming out of its dormancy stage soon enough. Hackers are able to access SSL protocol servers’ encryption key quite easily and are thus able to duplicate information which is highly classified and derive a lot of advantages from this classified data. Technicality and complexity are the major issues connected with this problem which needs to be addressed.